The Cribs have been rocking strong for many years and gained a devoted following in the UK. But since ex-The Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr joined the three brothers from Yorkshire, the band has reached a new level of notoriety. JULE SCHERER of NZPA talked to bassist/singer Gary Jarman.

Wellington, Feb 16 NZPA - Adding the former guitar player of one of most celebrated alternative bands of all time raises a band's profile, not that British band The Cribs really needed that extra boost, but bringing The Smiths' Johnny Marr into the fold secured them extra attention.

Their sound, settled between The Strokes and The Smiths, peppered with the occasional grandeur of The Killers and finished off with a good helping of punk-rock attitude, found high acclaim.

Their latest album Ignore the Ignorant was just nominated for Best Album, and Best Album Artwork at the prestigious NME Awards.

Twin brothers Gary and Ryan Jarman formed the band in 2001 with younger sibling Ross. The trio from Wakefeld, West Yorkshire, gained wide attention in the UK with their second album The New Fellas (2005) and cemented their standing with Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever (2007).

But The Cribs didn't let the fame get into the way of having fun. Known for raucous and unforeseeable live shows the band often shunned their label's plans and embarked on their own.

"The ethic of the band was just to not get caught; I f****g hate the conventional rock scene, it's just bulls**t and it is really boring," frontman Gary Jarman told NZPA.

"In the early days the band was more like a hardcore band and we would play wherever people wanted.

"We used to play squats and after that we went through a phase where we just let anybody who wanted book the band."

Although The Cribs already had two high-charting records under their belts, they would continue to play small venues in tiny villages.

"I think that was fun and it helped building up a hardcore fan base as opposed to anything else because people really connect with you at that point," Jarman said.

This attitude has brought The Cribs to New Zealand for the first time.

"We just love to go to places that don't get shows quite that often, because in England and in America and parts of Europe you feel that people are just spoiled for choice.

"I don't like that; that's why I like to go to places that don't get quite as many shows.

"I think the people are less jaded and more excited," the singer said.

They even prefered being in New Zealand to attending the NME music awards on February 24.

Although Jarman acknowledged it was nice to be nominated he said they would rather be in the company of people who actually cared than being in a room with a bunch of industry people.

"It's always flattering, we don't take that for granted but at this day and time I don't really care.

"I'm feeling that if I was caught up into caring about winning an award that would lead into becoming competitive with the other bands," he said.

"The more that people are celebrated, the larger their ego gets, so I try to keep out of that more superficial stuff.

"I don't want to feel like I am competing against any bands because that would change the dynamic of what you're doing," he said.

And for now The Cribs are still settling into another change of dynamics. It all started when bass player Gary moved to Portland in the western United States about three years ago. There he ran into Marr, who was playing with US indie rockers Modest Mouse at the time.

"The drummer from Modest Mouse is one of my best friends and me and Johnny got to know each other through him. We just started spending a lot of time just hanging out after that.

"It was nice to have an English friend in America as well, especially someone I had so much in common with, really.

"We just talked about bands and music, ideologies and all the things that we cared about. We really hit it off."

And as Marr got on well with the rest of the brothers, playing music together was just a natural thing to do and grew into the full-time employment of Marr.

The addition of the legendary guitarist changed how the band worked, but so did the fact that none of the band-members lived in the same city anymore. Twin brother Ryan lives in London, younger brother Ross in Wakefield and Marr in Manchester.

"The dynamic changed at that point when I moved away and I think it made it easier to integrate Johnny within the fold because we had to change our approach to writing anyway and a lot of things changed at once.

"But I like the fragmentation; I like the fact that we all bring different things to the table. We have different experiences, a lot wider screen in that way," Jarman said.

The fact that Marr now got most of the attention bothered the band not too much.

"We were aware of that, going into it, we knew that that would happen," he said.

"For the most part it's been fine because, in the UK no one sees it as that anymore. The band was already established and doing well.

"And if it does bring a few curious people to check it out...I always like being in a position where you feel you have to prove yourself," he said.

Tour dates:

Feb 23 - MySpace 'Secret show' - Auckland, All Ages

Feb 25 - The Bedford - Christchurch

Feb 26 - Bodega - Wellington

Feb 27 -Powerstation - Auckland